We’re proud of our Baptist history and heritage, but we’re also proud of our diversity. At First Baptist you will find a group of people coming from a variety of different church backgrounds and denominations who have found a home at the “top of Poplar.” And while our congregation comes from all over middle Georgia, we are a downtown church and see it is our mission to be the presence of Christ to our InTown and College Hill communities here in Macon.

Candles - Rev. Jody Long

This time of year always makes me nostalgic. Seventeen years ago, about this time of year, I was writing a speech for graduation. My senior classmates at Southeast High School, here in Macon, voted me “Senior Speaker” at graduation. I was slated to go last in the lineup, behind two dear friends who were valedictorian and salutatorian. I would offer the last meaningful word of our high school careers, other than your name being called by our Vice-Principal to collect our diplomas and being pronounced as a graduate. No pressure. I had no idea what to say.

With more on my mind than I knew how to handle, I trudged to my truck feeling as lost as the Israelites in the desert. Turning on the radio, I heard familiar words that struck a new chord. By the time my head hit the pillow that night, the speech was written.

I don’t remember much from the day or the speech, and I doubt my classmates walked away with a profound sense of purpose or vocation after hearing it. But my conviction in that speech, and even still this Sunday for our 2013 graduates, is summed up by Kathy Troccoli’s words, my inspiration that day:

There is a candle in every soul; some brightly burning, some dark and cold. There is a Spirit who brings fire; ignites a candle and makes His home.

Carry your candle, run to the darkness; seek out the hopeless, confused and torn. Hold out your candle for all to see it; take your candle, and go light your world

Frustrated brother, see how he's tried to light his own candle some other way. See now your sister, she's been robbed and lied to; still holds a candle without a flame.

Carry your candle, run to the darkness; seek out the lonely, the tired and worn. Hold out your candle for all to see it; take your candle, and go light your world.

We are a family whose hearts are blazing so let's raise our candles and light up the sky. Praying to our Father, in the name of Jesus, make us a beacon in darkest times.

Carry your candle, run to the darkness; seek out the helpless, deceived and poor. Hold out your candle for all to see it; take your candle, and go light your world.

Carry your candle, run to the darkness; seek out the hopeless, confused and torn. Hold out your candle for all to see it; Take your candle, and go light your world.

This Pentecost Sunday, the Spirit comes to light our candles again. For graduates, it’s their turn to shine a new light into the world. For the rest of us, maybe it’s time to trim our wicks and be prepared to light the world, again.